Tracking America's Unsolved Homicides

More than half of America's major police departments are struggling to solve homicides at the same level of success they enjoyed a decade ago, according to a study of federal crime records by the nonprofit Murder Accountability Project.The study focused on the nation's 160 police departments that investigate at least 10 homicides a year and that also faithfully report crime data to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. Of these, 86 departments (54 percent) reported less success in solving murders committed during the 10-year period 2006-2015 than in the preceding decade of 1996-2005, while 74 police agencies (46 percent) reported improving clearance rates.The study found most departments with declining murder clearance rates also experienced rising numbers of homicides. These departments often are located in states or counties with declining tax bases or facing other kinds of fiscal challenges.The purpose of MAP's study was to learn which law enforcement jurisdictions in the United States generally have improved homicide clearance rates and which jurisdictions experienced declines. Under U.S. Justice Department definitions, a homicide is "cleared" if at least one person is arrested, formally charged and handed over for prosecution.The study identified the 10 police agencies that reported the most improvement in homicide clearances and the 10 departments reporting the worst decline in solving murders.The law enforcement agencies with the most improved homicide clearance rates were: Mesa Police Department, Arizona; Tulare County Sheriff's Office, California; Metropolitan Police Department, Washington, DC; North Little Rock Police Department, Arkansas; East Orange Police Department, New Jersey; Fresno Police Department, California; Winston-Salem Police Department, North Carolina; Richmond Police Department, Virginia; Santa Anna Police Department, California; Oxnard Police Department, California.These agencies increased their clearance rates by a range from 36 percentage points in the case of Mesa Police down to 21 percentage points in the case of Oxnard Police.The 10 law enforcement agencies reporting the largest declines in homicide clearance were: Newark Police Department, New Jersey; Little Rock Police Department, Arkansas; Trenton Police Department, New Jersey; Pine Bluff Police Department, Arkansas; Chester Police Department, Pennsylvania; Elizabeth Police Department, New Jersey; Flint Police Department, Michigan; Camden City/County Police Department, New Jersey; City of Yonkers Police Department, New York; Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office, California

Signals affecting the urease status of plant-associated bacteria, Methylobacterium spp

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on May 12, 2009)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Biochemistry (Agriculture)Pink-Pigmented Facultative Methylotrophic bacteria (PPFMs, Methylobacterium spp.) have been found to be the most abundant microorganisms among phylloplane microflora, and have been recovered from all plants examined. I examined the ability of resident PPFMs to mimic the urease-negative phenotype of two mutant classes of urease-negative soybean hosts. The working model is that there is a signal from the plant that either inhibits the production of the urease gene products in the associated bacteria or inhibits the function or transport of Ni²⁺ from the plant to the bacteria. My studies led to the overall conclusion that urease is essential for assimilation of urea and of ureides, that urease has a constitutive basal level of expression and is "induced" by the ureide allantoin and "repressed" by the preferential nitrogen source, ammonium. However, these nitrogenous signals are not responsible for the urease-negative status of the plant associated PPFMs. Our working model has shifted to a block in Ni²⁺ uptake necessitating examination of Ni²⁺ content in these bacteria. I attempted the recolonization of plants with PPFMs to determine how this affects urease activity in recovered isolates. In the course of these studies it became obvious that the interactions between PPFMs and the host plant is an intimate one because seed-reintroduced strains, though colonizing the host plant, were not seed-transmitted. In addition, PPFM interactions with Arabidopsis and with soybean were distinguishable, in that only in the latter were endogenous PPFMs urease-negative on mutant hosts defective in urease accessory genes

Entschädigung der Exekutivmitglieder in Zürcher Gemeinden

Der vorliegende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, wie hoch die Entschädigungen sind, die an Stadt- und Gemeinderäte im Kanton Zürich ausbezahlt werden, die ihr Amt in Milizfunktion ausüben. Zudem wird untersucht, welche Faktoren die Entschädigungshöhen beeinflussen. Es zeigt sich, dass die unterschiedlichen Höhen der Gesamtentschädigungen vor allem auf zwei Faktoren zurückzuführen sind, nämlich auf die Einwohnerzahl und die ausgeübte Funktion. Im Vergleich zu den Gesamtentschädigungen lassen sich die pro Stunde entrichteten Entschädigungen nur unzureichend statistisch erklären. Der Medianwert weist hier eine hohe Stabilität auf und liegt bei ca. 57 CHF